Reading Task 1

Match the word with the picture.

pencil banana shoe baby car clock

truck bus phone chair bed plane

plant table cup horse bag orange

Cannot complete this task Provisional evaluation Step 2 – Level 1 Reading

13 Reading Task 2

The farmer and his sons

An old farmer worked hard all his life. He grew melons in his field.

The old farmer had three sons. They were very lazy. They slept all day long in the shade. Just before he died, the farmer said to his sons, ‘There is a great treasure in the field.’

The three sons took their spades and started digging the field. They dug hard but could not find any treasure. So they gave up work and went back to sleep.

Now that the field was so well dug, the melons grew big and juicy. The sons picked the melons and sold them at the market. People paid a lot of money for them.

The sons realised that the melons were the treasure. From that day, they started working hard in the field.

Some prompt questions to elicit an oral response.

1. What did the farmer grow in his field? 2. How many sons did he have? 3. What happened to the melons when the sons dug the field? 4. What was the treasure in the field? 5. What do we learn from this story?

14 Can engage with text and Provisional Evaluation questions Level 2 Reading Reading Task 3

Bee Societies

A bee society consists of a large number of sterile females (workers), some males and a queen.

The queen lives in the centre of the hive. She lays the eggs. The males fertilize the queen’s eggs. The worker bees perform all the other activities of the colony.

The behaviour of the workers shows considerable division of labour. Some bees build the structure of the combs. Others inspect the development of the larvae. Some bees protect the entrance of the hive. A large number of bees collect pollen. Others make honey. They store the honey in the outer cells. The bee keeper collects the honey from the hive once a year.

1. Fill in the missing information in the table below:

Type of Function bee male

Perform all other activities

2. Make a list of the activities which the workers perform:

  

3. (Oral response only) Can you describe any other animals or creatures that live in social groups?

Attempts task Provisional Evaluation reasonably well Level 2- 3

15 Reading Task 4 The Narrow Escape

My cousin, Rizwana, and I were spending our school holidays at my grand-father’s house on the outskirts of a small town in India. The house had a huge garden. Hundreds of fruit trees loaded with oranges, mangoes, peaches and guavas held out a temptation not easy to resist. But our favourite was a Jaman tree, bearing juicy bunches of dark purple fruit, bitter sweet in taste.

The gardener had strictly forbidden us to go near this particular tree because, according to him, lots of snakes, including cobras, had made their homes inside the tree trunk. On this particular afternoon, we crept out of the house and into the garden. Within minutes, we were giggling away with purple mouths and hands, perched on precarious branches of the Jaman tree.

Suddenly, Rizwana’s eyes were fixed on something on the ground below. I followed her gaze. There, half-hidden in the tangled bushes, was a snake, its beady eyes firmly fixed on Rizwana. The snake, evidently a cobra, was now standing on half the length of its body, its vicious head not very far from us. We knew we were trapped – doomed to die a painful death once the cobra decided to strike.

Suddenly there was a rustle among the dry leaves below. A stray cat was stalking its prey. But as soon as it saw the snake it stopped in its tracks, went darting back and jumped over the high brick wall. The wall! If we could crawl along the branch that shadowed the wall, perhaps we would be able to jump over into the field. It took what seemed to be like hours before we reached the wall. I closed my eyes– and thud...the next thing I knew was the feeling of intense pain in my left arm. I had twisted it.

We scrambled up and ran towards the house.

A long time has passed since the nightmare, but the memory lingers on. My flesh still creeps when I think of it.

Questions to elicit an oral response:

1. Why did Rizwana disobey the gardener? 2. What did she do? 3. What happened to her? 4. How did she get out of trouble? 5. What do you think Rizwana will have learnt from this experience?

Can engage with text and Provisional Evaluation questions Level 3 Reading or above

16 Reading Task 5

An extract from ‘Of Mice and Men’

For a moment the place was lifeless, and then two men emerged from the path and came into the opening by the green pool. They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open, one stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders.

The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely and only moved because the heavy hands were pendulous.

The first man stopped short in the clearing, and the follower nearly ran over him.

Discussion questions

1. Why was one of the men compared to a bear? 2. How are the two men different? 3. What does the physical description of each character suggest to you about their personalities?

Engages with this task Provisional Evaluation Level 4 or above

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